Social contagion and the female face of terror: New trends in the culture of political violence

Knight, W. Andy; Narozhna, Tanya

doi:10.1080/11926422.2005.9673393

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Those works that just mention a culture of political violence but do not offer any references to its meaning (e.g., Knight and Narozhna 2005;Ncube and Okeke-Uzodike 2015) are beyond the analysis because they fail to formulate definitions or explanatory and classification frameworks for scrutiny.…”

Section: Bibliographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Theorizing Cultures of Political Violence in Times of Austerity

Rak¹

2018

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Why did some protest movements turn to force when others did not in times of austerity? How has it influenced political structures of the Eurozone states? In this empirically rich, methodologically advanced, and theoretically innovative book, Joanna Rak open-mindedly addresses important research problems of the sources and consequences of differences and similarities across cultures of political violence formed by the post-2008 anti-austerity movements in Europe. Not only does Rak's study contribute to our understanding of what happened in austerity-driven societies, but it also makes an important contribution to the Social Sciences by creating and applying a compelling non-traditional research design that allows a researcher to verify methodological correctness and analytical effectiveness of theoretical frameworks. Those who are interested in how to analyze contentious politics now have an excellent work to read!' Roman Bäcker, The former President of Polish Political Science Association 'Joanna Rak has written an admirably clear, rigorously designed and conducted comparative study of European anti-austerity movements. This book does more than challenge the students of contention to think critically about conceptual and explanatory frameworks of cultures of political violence. By formulating and testing new analytical tools, the study pushes us to reconsider a traditional research process and the use of theoretical categories in comparative politics and social movement studies.' Adam Wielomski, The President of Political and Legal Theory Association 'This timely and innovative research allows us to understand how broad civil historical contexts shaped placid, hector-led, and militant cultures of political violence in austerity-driven Europe. Drawing upon the pieces of data in 14 languages and a comprehensive literature review, Joanna Rak creates entirely new databases for anti-austerity movements. In skillfully combining qualitative and quantitative comparative techniques, she achieves both theory-verification and theory-generation aims. The analysis makes significant methodological and theoretical advances as Rak devises a gradable theoretical category of a culture of political violence. Her original theoretical framework introduces a refreshingly new way to bring together accomplishments in the study of contentious politics and history. Rak paves the way for further research and discussion about a nature of contemporary cultures of political violence.'

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Section: Bibliographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Theorizing Cultures of Political Violence in Times of Austerity

Rak¹

2018

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“…For instance, there is a growing body of literature in IR that seeks to find the causes of ''suicide bombings.'' Such work attempts to pinpoint the motivations of suicide bombers in order to prevent them (see Bloom 2004;Kimhi and Even 2004;Knight and Narozhna 2005). Yet, the approach developed hereFto the psy disciplines in general, and to suicide in particularFsuggests that IR can reorient its approach to suicide, particularly in the growing literature on ''suicide bombers.''…”

Section: Political and Theoretical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Victims or Madmen? The Diagnostic Competition over “Terrorist” Detainees at Guantánamo Bay

Howell

2007

International Political Sociology

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This article traces the pathologization of suspected terrorists held captive at the U.S. military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The occurrence of several reported suicide attempts among the detainees provided “proof” for their captors that terrorists are indeed fanatical madmen. These same reports of suicide attempts, however, were contradictorily diagnosed by human rights and humanitarian organizations as evidence of psychological deterioration induced by prolonged detention. What is notable in this diagnostic competition over what, exactly, afflicts the detainees is that both advocates and resisters to the detentions pathologized the detainees by chalking up the suicide attempts to their purportedly impaired psyches. This is significant because the pathologization of the detainees is one condition of possibility for their excision from the global body politic. Authoritarian practices, such as the incarceration of the “mad” and the detention of “suspected terrorists,” are theorized as integral to global liberal governance, which divides up populations, and subjects those deemed mad, deviant, or dangerous to coercive measures in the name of order, security, and liberty. The article concludes with a consideration of the ways in which international relations (IR) could be more attentive to the operation of the “psy” disciplines in the conduct of international affairs.

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“…Perhaps the most prominent example of selfadministered death that has been examined in IR is suicide bombing. Here, research has focused on explaining the causes and motivations of suicide bombers (see Bloom 2004;Knight and Narozhna 2005). Seeking to go beyond an explanation of causes, recent examinations of suicide, focusing on the detainees at Guantánamo Bay, argue that suicide is, or can be, an expression of political agency (see Howell 2007;Beier and Mutimer 2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

Farmer Suicides and the Function of Death in Neoliberal Biopolitics

Alt

2018

International Political Sociology

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The farmer suicides that have taken place in India since the 1990s constitute the largest wave of recorded suicides in human history. While existing research largely focuses on explaining the causes that lead farmers to take their own lives, this paper examines the biopolitical governing function that the suicides have. The paper argues that the farmer suicides have functioned to legitimate intervention into the lives of those who remain by either treating them as subjects with mental health problems or educating them on how to embrace a neoliberal entrepreneurial mentality. The farmer suicides arguably also function to dispose of a population that has become surplus in the contemporary developmental vision of the Indian state. Furthermore, the paper contests biopolitical theorization that views suicide or death as resistance to biopower, arguing that such theorization fails to recognize both the particularity of biopolitics in a context where the presence of death is ubiquitous and the way in which the death of some may reinforce the biopolitical governing of life of others. The farmer suicides express rather than contest the devaluation of "unproductive" lives in neoliberal capitalism.On March 27, 2017, Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, passed a new Mental Health Care Bill, which has been welcomed as an important sign that India is adopting a more progressive position in the treatment of mental health issues. The previous year, the bill had been passed by Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the parliament, and on April 7, 2017, it received the assent of President Pranab Mukherjee, thereby becoming the Mental Health Care Act of 2017. The act includes provisions that revise various aspects of Indian mental health care policy. However, most attention has been paid to the fact that the act also effectively decriminalizes attempted suicide. Until now, attempted suicide has been subject to punishment by a one-year prison sentence, fines, or both, under the Indian Penal Code Section 309. 1 The new act states that "Notwithstanding anything contained in section 309 of the Indian Penal Code any person who attempts to commit suicide shall be presumed, unless proved otherwise, to have severe stress and shall not be tried and punished under the said Code" (Ministry of Law and Justice 2017, 46). This change in the Indian state's approach to suicide comes against the backdrop of the largest wave of recorded suicides in human history. The suicides in question have been committed by farmers, more than a quarter of a million of whom have taken their own lives in India between 1995 and 2009 (Center for Human Rights and Global Justice 2011, 1). In the current decade, the number of farmer suicides 1 The British introduced the criminalization of suicide to India as part of their colonial administration (Niehaus 2012, 223). The Indian Penal Code that contains the criminalization of suicide was developed during the British Raj Regime of 1860 (Ranjan et al., 2014, 5).

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Social contagion and the female face of terror: New trends in the culture of political violence

Cited by 5 publications

References 7 publications

Theorizing Cultures of Political Violence in Times of Austerity

Theorizing Cultures of Political Violence in Times of Austerity

Victims or Madmen? The Diagnostic Competition over “Terrorist” Detainees at Guantánamo Bay

Farmer Suicides and the Function of Death in Neoliberal Biopolitics

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